Numbered Days
by Griddlebone
Summary: When Trini's fiance goes missing, she calls on an old friend to help her get to the bottom of things... but they quickly discover that all is not as it seems. Trini/OC, eventual Trini/Jason.
1. Chapter 1

_"Can you come? I'm really worried."_

Trini's cryptic words echoed in Jason's head for the thousandth time. Since he could make no more sense of them than he could a moment ago, he ignored them and scanned the coffee shop for a place to sit. The cafe was somewhat crowded in spite of the late hour, but after a few moments he spied a table with a good view of the door and parked himself there.

It had taken him almost an hour to get to this cafe from his apartment, and he had been expecting Trini to beat him there, but there was no sign of her. She had not explained the sudden phone call, but she had sounded almost frightened, as if she thought she might be overheard, and that had been enough to convince him to see her.

But she wasn't here. And that worried him.

He was about to try calling her when the cafe door chimed open and she stepped in. She looked shaken and disheveled; it was immediately obvious to Jason that something was very wrong.

She caught sight of him almost immediately and quickly made her way to where he was waiting. It was all he could do not to pounce on her the moment she sat down, but somehow he managed to rein in his curiosity and let her collect herself before bombarding her with a thousand questions.

"Thanks for coming, Jase," she sighed, sagging into her chair. "I'm sorry to bother you so late..."

That was as far as patience could take him. "What's going on?" he asked. "You seem awfully upset."

Trini nodded slowly. "I am." She paused, thinking. Finally, she admitted, "It's Giovanni."

Jason couldn't help himself. He scowled a bit at that. It was no secret between them that while Trini had fallen head over heels for Giovanni Beaumont almost from the moment she first met him, Jason had never really been able to bring himself to like the guy. The two men were always cordial to one another, but that was as close to 'friendly' as they ever came. And courtesy of this mutual suspicion, the first words out of Jason's mouth were, "Did he hurt you?"

Trini looked appalled. "What? No! Jason, he's _gone_."

"He left you?"

"He didn't leave me," she protested. "He disappeared without a trace. I haven't seen him in over a week."

Jason sighed. "I don't get it. I thought you two were planning to get married."

"We were. That's what's so strange. It's not like him to just go off somewhere without letting me know." She let her gaze drop to the table and ran a hand self-consciously through her hair. "Look, I know you two have never liked each other... but I was really hoping you could help me figure out what's going on."

While he did not particularly relish the idea, Jason knew he couldn't turn her down. Despite his misgivings, Trini truly cared for Giovanni. And besides, helping her find him meant that Jason would get to be there when they inevitably caught him with another woman or trying to avoid getting married. And he really couldn't resist the chance to finally be proved right.

"All right," he said. "I'll do what I can to help." But as he spoke, he caught sight of something that bothered him. There was a large bruise darkening across Trini's forearm, just visible beyond the hem of her sleeve.

He gently caught hold of her wrist with one hand and moved her sleeve out of the way with the other. He was displeased to see that the bruise was larger than he had expected. She flinched slightly when he poked experimentally at it, but said nothing. Jason frowned and let her go. "I thought you said he didn't hurt you. What happened to your arm?"

"That's another thing I wanted to talk to you about," she said, meeting his gaze with eyes filled with foreboding. "When I was on my way here, I was attacked."


	2. Chapter 2

Trini wanted to shudder just remembering the attack, but she suppressed the fear and revulsion. It was imperative that Jason know about this, and the only way he was going to find out was if she told him. But that did not mean that everyone else in the café had to find out about it, too.

"Can we go somewhere a little more private?" she asked, giving him what she hoped was an honest and somber, but not frightened, look.

"Yeah, sure," he agreed easily, but she could tell he was troubled by her reluctance. "What did you have in mind?"

She glanced around quickly, thinking at first that his car might be the most private – though probably not the safest – place they could hope for. But then she spied a secluded table wedged into one of the café's back corners. It was a little grungy and pretty cramped and, most importantly, it was well away from other patrons. "Back there, maybe?" she suggested, pointing.

Jason shrugged. "Fine by me."

She let him lead the way to the back corner, stopping along the way to order hot tea with mint in the hopes that it would help calm her nerves. It did not help much, but it was definitely better than nothing. When they had both had a chance to get settled at the new table, Trini took a deep breath, glanced around one more time to make sure no one was eavesdropping, and started her story.

"When I called you, I'd been hearing weird noises in the back garden all afternoon," she told Jason. "I couldn't see anything weird out the windows, but I just had this really bad feeling…" She looked down at her cup of tea and realized she was gripping it tightly with both hands. "I thought it would be a good idea to get out of the house for a while, and it might help me feel better if I actually told someone about what's been going on with Giovanni. But when I got outside, they were waiting for me."

"They?" Jason prompted as she took a sip of her tea.

"There were four of them. They weren't… they weren't monsters, Jase. They were _men_. Human men wearing black suits, with sunglasses hiding their eyes even though it was almost dark out. But they weren't armed, at least not that I saw. I don't think they were trying to hurt me so much as trying to… grab me, or something. I was able to fight them off, but…" She met his gaze, feeling her heart break with fear and worry all over again. "I need to know if this is related to Giovanni's disappearance. What if he didn't leave of his own free will? What if he was _taken_?"

"So that's why you wanted to talk to me about this?"

"No, I wanted to talk to you about it because I know I can trust you," she assured him. "I know you'll be discreet about this and, honestly, there's no one else I'd trust more when it comes to watching my back." He had to know by now that she was buttering him up, but he certainly wasn't complaining, so she went ahead and asked, "Can you help me find out what's going on?"

He had been working as an investigator with the Angel Grove police force for the past several years; she knew he was wary of using his connections for personal reasons, even for his closest friends, but she had to at least ask.

Jason considered the request for a long moment. Finally, he said, "I'll try, Trini. But… you haven't given me a lot to go on."

"I know," she said. And it was true. She had put a lot of thought into the situation before deciding to contact him in the first place. It wasn't until the strange men had showed up and tried to stop her from meeting him that she'd been absolutely certain that Jason had to know what was going on. "But if anyone can find me a lead, it's you."

"I'll need to know everything you do," he said, with a slight sigh that told her he wasn't happy about doing this. She knew he wasn't the best of friends with Giovanni, so she sympathized, but she was glad he was willing to put forth the effort for her sake. "I need to know the last time you saw him, his work schedule, his friends, his colleagues, any enemies he may have had, or projects he might have been working on."

She dug a computer disk out of her purse and set it on the table. "I thought of that already. I started writing it all down to see if I could make any sense of his disappearance. I couldn't see any connections, but maybe you'll pick up on something I didn't."

He nodded slightly and pocketed the disk, his expression thoughtful. "I'll look into it, and let you know if I find anything."

"Thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate this."

"So, now that you've convinced me to help you out, what are your plans now?"

"I don't know. I'll go back home, I guess." And triple-check that all the doors and windows were locked before staying up all night anyway.

"All right, then. Come on. I'll walk you to your car."

She smiled. "Why do I get the feeling you're going to help me check for monsters in the closet, too?"

"You know me so well."

They exited the coffee shop without incident; the street outside was quiet and mostly empty. "Where'd you park?" Jason asked after the door closed behind them.

"About a block down," she admitted, indicating to the right. "Parked in a bar's lot. Didn't want anyone to find my car and figure out where I was."

"My car's in the side lot here," he told her. "We'll go to your car together, then you can drive me back here and I'll follow you back to your house. And yes, I'm going to check for monsters in the closets and under the bed before I go home and get started on those lists you gave me."

She managed to laugh a little at that, but then the streetlight directly beside them suddenly went out and she got a sinking feeling that the night was going to end as smoothly as Jason had planned. Dark, vaguely human shapes loomed silently out of the darkness around them a moment later, and Trini felt a chill go down her spine. Even in the gloom, she knew these were the same men from before – only there were more of them. A lot more.

And something else was different, too. She could see a yellowish glow shining from behind their dark glasses.

"Okay," Trini said, bracing herself for impending battle, "I take back the part where I said they were human."


	3. Chapter 3

"On second thought," Jason decided. "Let's just take my car."

He wasn't normally one to back down from a fight, but he did not like these odds or the fact that the attackers did not seem to be normal humans. So instead of sticking around to find out just how strong these guys were, he grabbed Trini and sprinted for the cafe's side parking lot.

"How many are there?" Trini asked breathlessly, glancing back over her shoulder as he pulled her along.

Jason tried to dig his keys out of his pocket without slowing down. "I don't know. I counted at least eight. There could be more."

By the time they reached his car, a fairly expensive red sports car that had the added benefit of being instantly recognizable, he had managed to get his keys into his hand. Unfortunately, he had been wrong in thinking that reaching the car meant they would be home free. There were three more goons waiting for them just beyond where he'd parked. They must have come around the building from the back.

Trini shook herself free of his grip and dropped into a fighting stance. Jason tossed her his keys. She caught them easily and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Get in the car," he told her. "And go. I'll try to hold them off long enough for you to get away."

"Jason..."

He wished she would just understand without questioning him. These guys, who or whatever they were, were after her. If she got away, he might have a better shot at surviving. And if not, then at least he would know she'd escaped.

"I'm not going to leave you," she protested.

The three men were coming closer, while the rest of their friends couldn't be far behind.

"You may not have a choice," he commented.

She didn't look happy about that, but by now she knew he was right. Grimacing, she bolted for the car while he charged headlong at the three men.

The sudden attack seemed to catch them off guard for a moment. If nothing else, they hesitated long enough to let Trini get the car unlocked and hurl herself inside.

Knowing that she was at least momentarily out of the line of fire, Jason could focus more of his attention on his own fight. He was outnumbered, but that didn't intimidate him in the slightest. He'd spent a good portion of his life fighting large groups of enemies as a Power Ranger. The only difference now was that he couldn't morph if the going got rough.

He was confident that he could take these three down. The question now was, could he do it before their friends caught up and turned the odds in their favor?

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as adrenaline and his fighter's instincts kicked in. He incapacitated his first target in a matter of seconds, delivering a quick and precisely aimed blow intended to knock the man out. That man went down like a stone, and Jason hoped he would stay down. If he was really a human, he should, but there was no guarantee he was dealing with human opponents here.

If his remaining opponents were like the first, this wouldn't be the worst fight he'd ever been in, but once their reinforcements arrived it might come close. He pivoted slightly to put the other two men in front of him and heard his car's engine come to life.

The sound spurred him on, but seeing how easily he had taken care of their comrade had made the remaining two thugs wary. They knew better than to let him get close now, but they were in no hurry to back off, either. Ordinarily Jason would have switched to focusing on defense, but he wanted to get these guys as far away from Trini as possible, so he kept pushing them backward and away from his car.

He knew it was only a matter of time before they stopped evading and switched to offense, and he saw the attack coming a heartbeat before the men actually moved toward him. He dodged the punch from the man to his left and parried the kick from the second. As he focused on wearing down the second man, he listened for any sound of approach from the other men. They should be catching up soon. He probably had a few more seconds, at most.

With that in mind, he launched into a series of rapidfire attacks that let him continue to work at man-number-two while keeping number one at bay. Unfortunately, they both kept up with him easily and even began to push him backward. Frustrated, and knowing that they were trying to back him up to where their friends were apparently waiting, Jason did not stop to wonder why the rest of the goons hadn't jumped him yet. Instead he struggled to regain some measure of control over the fight. If he could just land a decisive blow against one opponent or the other, then he would have the advantage again... And once these two were down, he would worry about their friends.

He blocked a punch from the man on his left and attempted to block the simultaneous attack from the second, but it turned out the second guy had only feinted. He lashed out as soon as Jason followed through on a parry, delivering a solid kick to Jason's gut as soon as there was the slightest opening.

Jason stumbled backward a couple of steps, reeling. In that instant, he knew he'd blown his chance of winning this battle. In a second or two, he was sure both of these goons and all of their friends would be pummelling him.

Only that wasn't what happened at all.

Accompanied by the smell of burned rubber, the screech of tires, and a sickening crunch, both of his remaining opponents went down at once. No real surprise, since Trini had floored it as soon as she backed his car out of its parking spot. In the heat of battle, it was a miracle she'd managed to only hit the bad guys. A foot more to her left, or if she'd been a second or two faster, and she would have taken him down, too.

Even though he'd escaped unharmed, Jason winced at the sight of the several large dents in the car's bumper and hood.

The driver side window rolled down and Trini stuck her head out. "Come on, hurry up!"

Seeing the wisdom in her plan, Jason gave up fighting and worrying about the damage to his car. The driver's side was closest to him, and Trini climbed into the passenger seat so he wouldn't have to waste time going around.

He only paused long enough to buckle in, then got them the hell out of there. As he guided the car out the parking lot's back driveway and down the street as fast as he could without drawing too much attention to them, he watched in the rearview mirror as the group of strange men gathered in the road behind him. The sight of so many dark figures, with their faintly glowing eyes, was unnerving.

There was no sign of any pursuit from the strange men, but he drove around at random for almost half an hour just to be sure they weren't being followed. It was quiet in the car except for the sound of the radio. Beside him, Trini was shaking, almost more than she had the first time they'd fought a group of Putties, back when they had first become Power Rangers. He didn't know what to say to comfort her.

Finally he pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store and let the car idle for a few minutes.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that it's probably not safe to take you back to your house tonight," he said.

Trini stared at her lap. "No." She sighed, then looked over at him. "And your apartment is only going to be 'safe' until they figure out who you are and where you live. I should never have dragged you into this."

He would never have forgiven her if this had happened and she hadn't bothered to tell him until after the fact. "Too late for that now. We're in this together."

She nodded. "Yeah."

"So what's the plan?"

She had always been better with strategy than he had, but now she seemed almost too shaken to think clearly. "I don't know, Jason. I don't..."

"Okay. Let's try my apartment then. If we don't run into any more trouble, we can hole up there for the night. I'll make a few calls and see if I can dig up any more clues." He did not say it, but they both knew that they probably did not have much time to get to the bottom of this.

She thought about that for a moment, and he knew she was once again regretting her decision to get him involved, but in the end she relented. "Okay."


	4. Chapter 4

The building was silent and there was no sign of pursuit, but Trini was still nervous when Jason locked them into his apartment. She was pretty sure that if those strange men - or whatever they really were - wanted her, they were going to get her whether or not there was a deadbolt between them. Still, she appreciated that Jason was trying to protect her. She knew he would do everything in his power to keep her safe; that was why she'd come to him in the first place.

When he had made sure the apartment was empty except for the two of them, he said, "You can go ahead and use the bedroom tonight if you want."

"You sure?"

He shrugged. "I'm gonna be up for a while anyway. I'll just take the couch."

She didn't think she would be getting much sleep either, but she knew better than to argue once Jason got an idea in his head. "Okay."

While he booted up his computer and got himself organized, Trini wandered down the short hallway and peeked into the bedroom. It was more or less clean, which was somewhat surprising. Jason wasn't a slob, but he usually had other things on his mind than organization or cleaning up. "Hey, Jase..."

"There are clean sheets in the bathroom closet," he said from the other room.

He was close, but not quite on the mark. She had been planning to hunt for clean sheets on her own a little later. "Actually I was wondering if it was okay if I used your shower." After the day she'd had, she felt in dire need of a hot shower and lots of soap.

"Yeah, go ahead."

He sounded distracted, so she poked her head into the living room to see what he was up to. He was seated at the computer desk, already poring over the lists of information she had compiled for him. She backed away quietly, heading for the bathroom and trying to ignore the way the knot in her stomach just seemed to be growing tighter and tighter. She hoped that he would somehow be able to find something that she had missed, anything that might lead her to Giovanni or explain why there were strange, not quite human men hunting her down.

A shower had sounded like a good idea at first, but when she found herself alone and relatively safe, with the hot water to hide her tears, she couldn't seem to stop crying. For five years, everything had been going perfectly. She'd been on her way to a successful career, she'd been engaged to a man she adored... and now it was all falling apart and there might not be anything she could do to stop it.

After what seemed like an eternity, the tears subsided and she was able to get herself cleaned up and feeling more or less composed again. She stared at herself in the misty mirror on the wall above the sink, at the feelings written clearly across her face, at her wet, bedraggled hair. Determined to believe her own words, she said aloud, "Get it together, Trini. Jason's going to help you. You're going to figure this out."

Doing her best not to let the doubt and fear come slinking back in, she finished drying off and getting dressed and returned to the living room, where Jason was apparently still working on going through her files.

"Thank you, I feel much better now," she said, although she didn't, not really. She still felt sick and confused, but those feelings were a bit more distant than they had been before her shower. She didn't want to be too pushy or set her expectations too high, but she couldn't help asking, "Any luck yet?"

"I called some people -"

"That was fast."

"But it's going to take a while to find anything out. Honestly, the only thing that might be a lead is this last job you listed here, the one without any information. You really don't know anything about what he's been doing for the past six months?"

"It's just some sort of research position, or at least that's what he told me. Something on the cutting edge... he was so excited about it, but he couldn't give me any specifics yet. You don't think it could have something to do with his disappearance, do you? What could he have been researching that would..."

"It may not have anything to do with his disappearance," Jason assured her. "But if it's okay with you, I'm going to look into it anyway."

She nodded, suddenly afraid that the person, or persons, responsible for Giovanni's disappearance might be someone she knew. Or worse, someone she trusted. "So what's the plan?"

"I don't know yet, honestly. Lie low until we get some more info, I guess. I'm on duty tomorrow. You can come to the precinct if you want," he offered. "Might be safer there."

She shook her head. "You saw those men, Jase. Whatever they were, they weren't human. I can't drag innocent people into something like that."

"They're not just innocent people, Trini, they're -"

"I know," she said, placating. "But they don't have our level of experience with things like this."

"Fair enough. But if you don't come with me, I want you to stay here."

"Okay." It wasn't as if she felt particularly safe anywhere else, anyway.

"Try to keep quiet. Stay away from windows. And I know I don't need to tell you this, but I'm going to say it anyway: don't open that door for anyone that isn't me."

She nodded.

"Now go get some rest. If I find anything important, you'll be the first to know."

"Do you mind if I stay out here a while?" she asked. "I just... don't really want to be by myself right now."

He turned to look at her, his eyes filled with concern. "Sure. Just let me know if you need anything."

She nodded and took a seat on the couch. After a few minutes, she couldn't stand the quiet anymore, so she turned the television on, but she ended up just staring at the screen without really watching anything. As much as she wanted to let it go and get some rest, she couldn't stop thinking about what had happened - and almost happened - earlier that night. She couldn't stop fearing that she and Giovanni and now Jason were already caught in some sort of horrible trap that they could never hope to escape.

It was past three in the morning when Trini finally turned the TV off, wandered into the bedroom, and collapsed onto Jason's bed. Feeling almost numb, and too drained to care that she had forgotten to change the sheets after all, she pulled the blankets up around her and tried to will herself to sleep. Not for the first time since his disappearance, she wished Giovanni could be with her, if only to hold her and tell her everything would be okay.

She must have slept eventually, because when she woke up late morning light was filtering in through the room's single window. By the time she managed to drag herself out of bed, Jason was already gone, so the apartment was quiet. There was a note on the kitchen counter telling her to help herself to anything she wanted from the kitchen and reminding her that she should call him the moment she even so much as suspected something might be up.

She made herself breakfast and had just finished washing the dishes afterward when someone knocked on the door. She froze where she was and listened, but just when she thought she might be in the clear the knocking came again, more forcefully this time.

Finally: "I know you're in there."

Trini felt like her heart had stopped beating. Recovering herself, she crept silently over to the door and risked a glance through the peep hole.

Jason's warning about not opening the door flitted through her head and though under ordinary circumstances she would have obeyed, she unlocked the door and flung it open. "Giovanni!" she gasped, shocked at finding herself face to face with her missing fiance. "Where have you been? What's going on?" She trailed off in horror upon realizing that Giovanni was not alone. Two goons, with their long coats and dark glasses and not-quite-human looks, were with him, standing just out of sight from the apartment's peep hole.

"I need you to come with me," Giovanni said.

"I can't," she protested, taking a step back. "Gio, are you in some kind of trouble? Because I can help you. I don't care what it is..."

"I'm not in any trouble," he promised. "But I need you to come with me. And I need you to trust me."

Trusting him sounded like the last thing she should do right now, but this was Giovanni. He was the man she loved, the man she was going to marry, and a part of her desperately wanted to be with him and for everything to be okay. She did not shut the door. "Tell me what's going on first."

"I don't have time to explain right now," he said.

"I'm not going anywhere until I know who these men are and why they've been trying to kidnap me."

"There's no time for that now," he insisted.

"Then I'm sorry," she said. "I can't help you."

"I'm sorry, too," he said, his expression darkening with something that might have been regret... or pity.

She sensed the attack an instant before it came, and managed to duck out of reach as Giovanni's two goons lunged for her. Rather than back up and give them a chance to corner her in Jason's apartment, she dove into the hallway and slammed right into Giovanni. He wrapped his arms around her in a bear-hug and held tight, but she knew she was stronger than he was. All she had to do was break away and she would have a fighting chance.

She thought she had her opening when he loosened his grip a second later, but he'd only let her go so he could grab a cloth from his coat pocket. He pressed it over her mouth and nose, fingers digging in awkwardly as he struggled to hold onto her. She smelled the drug a breath too late. "Gio, why?" she asked as the world began to spin and waver around her.

He released her and watched silently as she stumbled two more steps down the hall and collapsed onto the floor. When she failed to pick herself back up, Giovanni strode over to kneel beside her, pressing the drugged cloth over her face again until her vision started to fade.

The last thing she heard before blacking out was Giovanni saying, "Bring her. We don't have much time."


	5. Chapter 5

By the time Jason reached the floor his apartment was on, it was all he could do not to run down the hallway and make sure everything was okay. He hadn't heard from Trini all day, and that was enough to make him suspicious. Life was never that easy; he just couldn't believe that she had spent the whole day safe and sound in his apartment. Not after what he'd seen yesterday.

Even though he thought he had prepared himself for the worst, he still felt his heart drop as soon as he reached his apartment. The door was unlocked.

"Damn it!" he muttered, throwing the door open.

He'd been expecting to find the place torn up, since he'd kept all of Trini's information with him rather than risk leaving it behind, but the apartment was just as he'd left it in the morning. Everything was neatly in its place, except that Trini was nowhere to be found.

He did a quick but thorough check of the apartment, but there was nothing. No note, no clue, not the slightest indication of where she might have gone.

"Damn you, Giovanni Beaumont," he growled. He had no proof that Giovanni himself was behind Trini's disappearance, of course, but he knew there was no one else Trini would have opened that door for. And since there was no sign of tampering at the door or any of the apartment's windows, that meant Trini had opened the door - and put herself at risk - willingly. Or else she had departed on her own, and there was only one person she'd have done that for, too: Giovanni.

"I don't know what you're up to, but I'm going to find out."

Reining in his anger and frustration for the moment, he noted that the light on the phone on his desk was blinking: someone had left him a message. Hoping against hope that the message might at least hold a clue to Trini's whereabouts, he keyed in the voicemail access code.

"Hey, Jason. It's Matt," the recording began. "I'm calling with regard to the information you wanted me to dig up. Turns out there's no record that this research program you're looking for ever existed. I don't know what this friend of yours told you, but whatever it was, it wasn't true. Hope that helps. Give me a call if you need anything else."

Jason hung up, resisting the urge to break the phone out of sheer frustration. As tempting as it was, he knew that letting anger control him would do him - and Trini - no good. And at least the call had given him new information, even if it wasn't the information he'd wanted.

It had raised red flags last night when Trini told him that Giovanni had been unwilling to discuss his latest "research" position with her, but Jason had opted not to mention his suspicions to her, not wanting to upset her further or push her away by implying that her fiance might be up to no good. Too bad the confirmation of his fears came too late to keep her safe.

While his instincts told him to rush out and search for her, or let his friends on the police force know what was happening, he knew he had no leads at all and no chance at all of finding her if he did anything rash. And besides, with the likely culprits not being human, getting the police involved might be dangerous - for them. So he tried as best he could to keep his head clear, because he also knew that time was of the essence, and focused his energy on going through his small list of clues again. If Giovanni was behind this - and Jason was all but positive that he was - then finding him would mean finding Trini.

And Jason suspected he knew just where to start looking. The mysterious research program Giovanni had told Trini he was working with might not exist, but Jason was willing to bet Giovanni would have told Trini as much of the truth as he could. So the program itself wasn't real, but Giovanni was very likely working with someone, or some other program, within the same university. Jason didn't like having so little to go on, but at least it was better than nothing.

As he went back over the notes Trini had given him, searching for anything he might have missed, he began to form a plan. Tomorrow he would head over to the university that was supposed to be funding Giovanni's phoney research program and start poking around. He would see if he could find a contact, or anyone that was willing to give him a little more information, and see where he could go from there. With any luck, he would find a new lead that would help him find Trini before it was too late.

But he was all too aware of how lucky he had been lately: not very. And bad planning and conjecturing were doing nothing to make him feel better. No matter what plan of action he tried to sort out, and no matter how much he tried to stay positive, his thoughts always seemed to circle back to the same damning truth: _I should never have left her here alone._

He'd let her down.

He'd failed her.

But he'd _trusted_ Trini. He had always trusted her, even back when they were kids attending their first martial arts classes together. She could handle herself in a tough situation. She wasn't the kind of girl that needed rescuing, and she never had been. He knew that better than anybody. It was the only reason he'd agreed to let her stay behind while he was working. Except... in the end, the one time she couldn't handle things herself, he hadn't been there to help her.

Even if he managed to find her somehow, even if he got her back safe and sound, he wasn't sure he would ever forgive himself for allowing her to be taken in the first place. But the first step was getting Trini back. And taking care of Giovanni once and for all.

Then maybe he'd think about finding a way to forgive himself.


	6. Chapter 6

Trini drifted back to consciousness in fits and starts. By the time she finally woke up for good, she had a strong suspicion that she was being drugged in the long term, a suspicion that was confirmed as soon as she was able to open her eyes. She had not known what to expect, as her last memory was of Giovanni drugging her in the hallway of Jason's apartment building, but it did not surprise her too much to find herself in a hospital room.

Steady electronic beeping from somewhere to her left let her know she was being monitored, but she did not see any windows or any sign of what time it might be. She tried to sit up, but her body was still mostly numb and would not respond to her will.

So for a while she lay still on her hospital bed and went over what she could remember. She remembered Giovanni disappearing, being attacked outside her home, turning to Jason for help... Giovanni showing up out of nowhere and kidnapping her. By then, she couldn't take it anymore. With shaking arms, she pushed herself upright and began systematically pulling off the myriad wires and tubes that had been connected to her. She had no idea what they were for, but she wanted out of this place. Now.

An alarm sounded when she removed a series of electrodes from her chest - some sort of heart monitor? - but she kept working anyway. By the time someone showed up to check on her, she had finished removing the last of the wires and was in the process of investigating her room. She wasn't sure what troubled her more: that the door had been locked from the outside, or that the medical getup was like nothing she had ever seen before.

The loud click of the door unlocking put a stop to her horrified suspicions for a moment. And then all of the fear and anger came crashing back down on her as Giovanni stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

"Ah, you're awake," he began.

"You sound surprised."

"You weren't supposed to wake up yet," he admitted.

"When _was_ I supposed to wake up, Gio?" she demanded, unable to hide her anger. "Why did you kidnap me?"

"Trini," he said gently, "I didn't have a choice. I needed to know you were safe."

She found that difficult to believe. "And I'm 'safe' here. Where is here, exactly? What _is_ all of this?" She gestured at the array of strange machinery that lined the far wall, the source of the beeps she had heard earlier and the screeching alarm that was still whining.

"I can't tell you that. No one can know that you're here," Giovanni groused as he crossed the room to silence the machines.

Trini followed him with her gaze, unwilling to turn her back on him. She felt horribly self-conscious and defenseless in her hospital gown. "Tell me what's going on," she said when the alarm finally stopped sounding.

"You shouldn't be out of bed yet," he murmured gently. She stared him down. "Trini, at least sit down."

The last thing she wanted to do was go anywhere near that bed again, but she did as he asked. When she was seated again and he looked slightly less alarmed, she said, "Now tell me."

"What would you say if I told you we're not alone?"

"Meaning?"

"That alien life forms have come to Earth..."

"Gio, I've lived in Angel Grove since I was a kid. We've had to deal with alien invaders for years, that's why we had the Power Rangers. Of course 'we're not alone'."

"I don't mean life forms like that. I mean an invasion so insidious that the human race has already been infiltrated and is in immediate danger of destruction."

"An invasion on that kind of scale... Logistically, it's just not possible."

"I'm telling you now, Trini, it is possible. And it's happening right now. That's why I had to make sure you were safe."

For a moment, she feared he had lost his mind completely. For all she knew, he'd simply created this hospital dungeon somewhere to keep her as his prisoner, though she had no idea why he would do such a thing. But since he seemed willing to talk, at least for the moment, she pressed, "How can you possibly know that?"

"Because I'm helping them."

Trini's blood ran cold. "You're helping them?"

"Yes."

While she struggled to come up with a suitable response, he went on. "It was the only way to make sure I was safe. To make sure you were safe."

"Safe from what?" she managed to ask. This was dangerous territory; no matter how much she cared for him, she knew she could not explain why she was so sure she would be okay in the case of sudden alien invasion.

"From the Entuar."

She could guess what he meant by that, but she wanted to keep him talking. "Entuar?"

He came over to sit next to her on the bed then. "The Entuar. The aliens that have come to Earth. They mean to take over the planet and enslave the entire human population." He grimaced slightly. "I don't have much time to explain before they will notice that I'm missing, but they've constructed a mind control device that functions on an unbelievable scale. I believe that they will soon have the capability of brainwashing most or all of the human populace all at once."

She couldn't help it; she stared at him. If he was telling the truth, this was like no other invasion Earth had survived in the past.

"That's why I had to get to you," Giovanni murmured softly. "I helped them create the device. I know how to counteract it. And with the implant I gave you, you'll be immune to the device's effects."

She barely heard that last part. 'You'll be immune' was lost in a sea of horrified outrage. "You _operated_ on me?"

He stood again, backing off as if he might be afraid that she would lash out. But when she did not move except to feel gingerly at the back of her neck, where she had only just now really noticed the wadded bandages, he relaxed. He cupped her head gently in both hands and bent down to kiss her forehead. "Yes. But only because I had no choice. But now you have the implant. Now you're safe from the device. They'll never be able to control you."

Trini's thoughts raced uncontrollably, and she could feel terror growing in her heart. Alien invasions she could deal with, but nonconsensual operations? She was shaking; it took her a moment to realize it was from anger as much as fear.

But even as she was tempted to let her anger show, to let him know exactly what she thought of his 'noble' efforts to keep her safe, she knew this was her best opportunity for escape. He'd finally let his guard down. He'd approached her, and she'd let him get close. She did not have to fake the anguish when she murmured, "Oh, Giovanni," and let him pull her up and into his arms.

"I'm sorry," she whispered into his ear. Moving as quickly as she could, she ducked out of his grasp and slipped behind him. A few moments and a well-applied chokehold later, Giovanni was sprawled unconscious across the bed.

Working methodically because she knew time was of the essence now, she robbed him of his long white lab coat, his wallet, and several cards that looked suspiciously like security clearance cards. The lab coat was far too big for her, but it made her feel less naked than the hospital gown alone. As soon as she was ready, she cracked the door to her room open and peered carefully outside.

She had been expecting a fight, but the hallway outside was empty. It looked innocent enough, like any other hallway in an administrative building or office, but there were no windows anywhere. And there hadn't been any in her room, either. Realizing that she was most likely underground, she fought off a growing feeling of claustrophobia.

The hall looked much the same to her right as to her left, so she picked a direction at random and started walking. After a couple of security checkpoints, where the cards she'd stolen from Giovanni really did come in handy, she finally found herself in a stairwell that led up. There were windows near the top, and the light that streamed in from them looked natural.

She hurried up to the top only to discover that this part of the building was guarded by several of the same humanoid creatures that had been escorting Giovanni when he kidnapped her. Knowing that they already knew she was there, she made a quick assessment of the situation. There were two of them and only one of her, but she knew how to hold her own in a fight against uneven odds. And better yet, just past where they were standing was a set of double-doors that looked as if it must lead somewhere important.

Her heart felt like it had leapt up into her throat as she climbed up onto the landing where the guards stood. But they made no move to apprehend her or attack her as she approached. They simply watched with their glowing eyes as she crept nervously past them, and yet she could not help but think that they might pounce at any moment, up until the moment the double doors clicked shut behind her.

And then the guards were momentarily forgotten as she emerged into an enormous empty room. The dusty, industrial look told her it must be some kind of warehouse. There was a large set of doors at the far end, near what looked to be a little-used loading dock, which miraculously turned out not to be locked. Hardly daring to believe her luck, Trini stumbled outside into the late afternoon sun and found herself in a part of town she recognized. This place was not far from the docks. It alarmed her to see that there was no one at all around, because that meant it was probably Sunday, and she had been Giovanni's prisoner for several days at the least.

Giovanni could not have known it - no one could - but Trini knew this part of town better than she had any right to. Rather than wandering at random, lost, she headed directly away from the docks and warehouses, toward the more residential side of town. There, she would find other people, and the very thought had her first jogging and then outright running, despite the pain of her bare feet hitting the uneven pavement.

She kept running until she had left the docks far behind. Only then did she slow down enough to catch her breath and look around. As frustrating as it was, on top of everything else that had happened today, now she had to hope she could find someone willing to help her in spite of her unfortunate attire. She had no money for a pay phone if she could even find one, so she had to hope for someone willing to call the police on her behalf, or who would allow her to call a friend. Ordinarily she would have hesitated to involve the police, but police involvement meant Jason would hopefully find her.

And all she wanted now was for Jason to find her, and make sure Giovanni could never take her again.


End file.
